GOSHEN – Senator Kirsten Gillibrand visited Orange County’s black dirt region in the Pine Island area on Monday to tout the benefits of the recently approved Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden, and which is expected to help farmers like Chris Pawelski.
Included in the legislation is more than $5 billion to help struggling farmers, such as loan forgiveness, and funding to help farmers and rural communities transition to climate-friendly agricultural practices and green energy.
Pawelski helped Gillibrand craft a bill, the Relief for Small Farmers Act, and critical parts were included in overall inflation reduction legislation.
“Like many farmers across New York, Chris was struggling to make ends meet,” said Gillibrand.
“New York’s farmers are critical to our state’s economy. Many farms and farmers like Chris are in desperate need of urgent and direct loan forgiveness to alleviate their debt and keep their operations running.”
Black dirt onion farmer Chris Pawelski, who helped Gillibrand craft the legislation, called it an incredible accomplishment.
“This is about smart public policy. We don’t want to have our food production controlled by a handful of large corporate entities out in the packed northwest where no one lives. This is about maintaining our domestic food supply, in particular, with small family farmers.”
Like many farmers, Pawelski has had to cope with weather downtowns, which make it difficult to maintain his operation, and a pandemic that reduced demand and raised costs.
